According to people who have studied the ancient Mayan calendar, the world was supposed to end Friday. Except it didn't. Our reporters chronicle the fact that we're all still here.

Good morning! Today may -- or may not -- be the last day of the rest of your life. We'll know soon. Winter officially begins at 6:12 a.m., which is the moment the ancient Mayan calendar gets to the last page.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:07:21 AM

Best Doomsday headline ever, from the Huffington Post: "Mayan apocalypse prompts school closures."

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:07:55 AM

In Michigan, schools have closed early for the winter break. Whether it is truly also because school district authorities thought the world was doomed is open to interpretation.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:08:37 AM

Unclear on the process: Is the world supposed to end all at once? Incrementally? Starting on the Yucatan Peninsula, where the Mayans ruled? Under two minutes to go...

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:09:34 AM

If the world does end, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield will have a ringside seat. He's three hours away from docking his Soyuz capsule at the International Space Station. Hope he has his camera out.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:10:20 AM

As the winter solistice, today is the shortest day of the year. Makes sense, if it's the end of the world in 15 seconds.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:11:54 AM

6:12 a.m. has arrived. The Toronto skyline is still there, the Gardiner is still up. We're waiting....

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:12:38 AM

The Mayans, who scoffed at the idea of the end of the world, have started a new page on their long chart calendar. Filled, no doubt, with dental appointments and recycling garbage days.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:14:57 AM

from Twitter: My car alarm just went off thought it was a sign. #endoftheworld

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:15:47 AM

Sing along, folks...

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:19:17 AM

More from Michigan: More than 30 Michigan schools have closed two days early for the holidays. Twin fears are of violence against students and the Mayan predictions of earth's end.

Detroit’s station WDIV reported that Lapeer Community Schools superintendent Matt Wandrie explained that because of said "the recent events in Connecticut" there have been "rumours circulating in our district and in neighbouring districts about potential threats of violence against students." He didn't stop there. Said Wandrie, "Rumours connected to the Mayan calendar predicted end of the world on Friday have also surfaced."

“Although we in the county are reluctant to cancel school because the rumors are unsubstantiated, we feel it is the most appropriate decision given the gravity of recent events and our present circumstances,” Wandrie wrote on the school website.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:22:33 AM

13 weeks until Spring

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:28:48 AM

From Twitter: The lights flickered for a second on the Bloor-Danforth subway and someone yelled "IT'S STARTING!" #endoftheworld #ttc -@michaelfil

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:30:26 AM

From Twitter: Mayan Apocalypse ‏@kabooooooooom

Sorry everyone, running a bit late.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:34:25 AM

The Star's Susan Delacourt tweets: So. New calendars for all the Mayans on my Christmas-gift list.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:38:13 AM

That's the last word

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 11:49:01 AM

Celebs, or at least their social media minions, are saying this about the Doomsday that wasn't:

Ricky Gervais: I'm watching that movie "The Day after tomorrow" at the moment. Strangely reassuring.

Kirstie Alley: just when everyone relaxes on Dec 22.... CNN announces the Mayans were off by 48 hours

Denis Leary: If the world somehow actually ends tomorrow, lets all forget about the Mayans and just agree it's the NHL's fault.

Kris Allen: Maybe lets just stay up all night and see if the Mayans were right.

Joy Behar: RT @realgilbert: #Mayans because "The Mayan is a terrible thing to waste." I apologize to everyone who dies at the end of the World.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:04:19 PM

Doomsdayers in France celebrating their survival

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:09:08 PM

Selling snacks to tourists in Bugarch, France, one of the supposed safe zones against the Mayan apocalypse. Why die hungry?

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:11:52 PM

Interviewing Doomsdayers dressed as "martians" in Bugarch, France

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:13:40 PM

As they have for centuries, mystics gather as Stonehenge in England for the Winter Solistice, apocalypse or not. And they'll be there again next year.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:16:12 PM

A man dressed as Arthur Uther Pendragon holds a Druid ceremony in Wiltshire England at the Stonehenge circle for the Winter Solistice. Note takeout coffee.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:20:28 PM

Google UK is joining in the Mayan apocalypse with this image. Google Canada is playing it straight.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:23:14 PM

Yashen (R) and Neetu, staff of the bar Carnegie's, pose as they hold a flyer for the "end of the world' party, in Hong kong

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:25:25 PM

Students watch during the countdown to when many believe the Mayan people predicted the end of the world, Friday, Dec. 21, 2012, in Taichung, southern Taiwan.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:27:20 PM

Aborigines "Kekchi", from Coban, gather as they protest a day before the Oxlajuj Baktun celebration at the Tikal Mayan ruins in Peten December 20, 2012. Indigenous activists protested outside Guatemala's ancient ruins of Tikal on Thursday as members of the country's poverty-stricken Mayan communities seek to draw international attention to their plight ahead of festivities to mark the end of the Mayan calendar.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:31:30 PM

"Wait until the dawn on the 22nd; that is when we Maya will speak," Nobel Peace Prize laureate Rigoberta Menchu said in Guatemala, another Maya area.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:34:41 PM

Many people who came to Yucatan for the occasion were already calling it "a new sun" and "a new era."

"The galactic bridge has been established," announced spiritual leader Alberto Arribalzaga at a "galactic connection" ceremony Thursday in Merida. "The cosmos is going to take us to a higher level of vibration ... where humanity is in glory, in joy," Associated Press reports

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:35:28 PM

"it's a fairly unremarkable day on planet Earth today, " geologist and vulcanolist Bill Leith, of the U.S. Geological Survey', said late Thursday.

There had been about 120 small earthquakes and a moderate temblor in Japan, he said. "That's very much a normal day."

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:37:02 PM

Yucatan Gov. Rolando Zapata said he felt growing good vibes.

"We believe that the beginning of a new baktun means the beginning of a new era, and we're receiving it with great optimism," Zapata said, according to the Associated Press.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:38:41 PM

Video game mogul Richard Garriott de Cayeux is throwing a party two years in the planning in Austin, Texas. Some highlights from AP: At the Salvationist Sideshow and Carnival of Curiosity, guests will watch water turn to wine as a performer known as The Enigma, tattooed from head to toe, bears witness to his salvation.

In the Here and Now tent, guests will sit on plush pillows and play boundary-pushing games. Nearby, the transcendentalists will challenge guests to walk on hot coals.Garriott de Caveux, who likes to live large, developed the video game Ultima.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:41:56 PM

The apocalypse took an ugly turn in China. Authorities concerned that a Christian group, the Church of Almighty God, was spreading fears about the end of the world have arrested at least 1,000 of them on charges of sowing social panic, Reuters reports.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:46:14 PM

Opportunity knocks. The National Portrait Gallery in London tweets: Portrait Gallery ‏@NPGLondon

Isaac Newton said that #endoftheworld would be no earlier than 2060 - so you have time to see his portrait in Rm 8!http://ow.ly/ghvDN

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:49:44 PM

What the end of the world might have looked like in Sydney (although it's actually dark there now and almost Saturday)

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:54:00 PM

"Think of it like Y2K," James Fitzsimmons, a Maya expert at Middlebury College in Vermont, told Reuters. "It's the end of one cycle and the beginning of another cycle."

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 12:57:03 PM

Looking for the end of the world's silver lining, I thought that I would be able to sleep in. Like, really really sleep in. No such luck. Kids up early. School is piggybacking on the apocalypse by making it pajama day but why would we have done laundry? My son is singing Gangnam Style in what might be pidgin Korean. Everyone is remarkably calm.

by David Rider12/21/2012 1:02:14 PM

Guys, you've lost your last excuse. There are four shopping days left until Christmas

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 1:03:36 PM

Opportunity knocks. The Canadian Red Cross wasn't saying the world was going to end. It seized the moment, though, to remind people what they should have just in case of a catastrophe, to get through the first 72 hours:

Six litres of water per person. Enough non-perishable food for each person and a can opener. Crank- or battery-operated flashlight and radio, with extra batteries. Extra keys for car and house. First aid kit. Cash in small bills. Special needs items such as medications, baby supplies and equipment for people with disabilities.

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 1:07:02 PM

Just to prove the world hasn't ended, the TTC tweets: ALL CLEAR: The delay southbound at Summerhill Station is now clear. Full service has resumed on the Yonge University Spadina line. #TTC

by Lesley Ciarula Taylor12/21/2012 1:10:53 PM

In other end-of-the-world-related news, the Toronto Star has asked Mayor Rob Ford for an in-depth, end-of-year interview.